The Feature – Everything Wireless
Columns – The Feature
21st Century Renaissance, March 2003
Today’s renaissance makes us feel that our self-expression matters, too.
World Conquest through Bottom Up Media, April 2003
Today’s renaissance makes us feel that our self-expression matters, too.
The Wireless Blackout, August 2003
In the Great Blackout of 2003, it was the landlines that worked, and the cell phones that failed.
The Lollapalooza Syndrome: When Meatspace and Cellspace are Redundant, August 2003
A mass gathering of wireless generation members doesn’t necessarily mean a massive use of wireless technologies. On the contrary, the most wirelessly literate may know best when to switch off and enjoy the party.
Social Currency, September 2003
No matter how colorful you make it, content will never be king in a wireless world. It’s not the content that matters – it’s the contact.
Flash Mobs: The Purposeless MicroRave, September 2003
I surrender to the media hype. Here’s what I think about Flash Mobs, writing about Flash Mobs, and writing about writing about Flash Mobs.
America’s Teens: Stupid or Spoiled, September 2003
America’s teen market may prove difficult for snazzy handset manufacturers to penetrate. But the real reasons for upgrade reluctance might surprise them.
You CAN Take it With You!, October 2003
America’s teen market may prove difficult for snazzy handset manufacturers to penetrate. But the real reasons for upgrade reluctance might surprise them.
My Cell Phone is Not a TV, November 2003
The wireless industry’s insistence on bringing the wrong media to our cell phones may cost us – and them – the whole game.
It’s Nice to Share, November 2003
In their relentless pursuit to move “up the food chain” wireless providers are sacrificing the massive potential (and profit) of open standards and interoperability to the booby prize of cool commercial content.
As Above, So Below, December 2003
The satellite dish at the heart of a new age conference dedicated to ‘world peace’ begs whether violent communications strategies only beget more of the same.
Walter’s Wireless World, December 2003
What would Walter Ong have thought about the current evolution of mobile media, or, What Would Jesus Moblog?
The Wireless Obsession, January 2004
Are there times when going wireless is just plain pointless? Rushkoff’s extended battle with Wireless Obsessive Dissorder.
Content Deliverance, January 2004
Content Management is for losers. Young people may have discovered the dark truth about digital media: the person who wins the right to store a piece of data has actually won the booby prize.
The Golden Age, February 2004
Don’t take your handheld for granted. This sorry decade may just be remembered as the ‘golden age’ of wireless devices.
The Power of Three: When Technology, Business and Marketing Converge – Part I, February 2004
The new generation of high-speed content delivery technologies marks a turning point for the mobile industry. It’s finally time to abandon the notion that you are just cell phone companies or wireless access providers, and come to grips with the fact that you are selling, or at least supporting, an entirely new set of digital lifestyles.
The Power of Three: When Technology, Business and Marketing Converge – Part II, February 2004
It’s one thing to know your consumers – it’s a far greater challenge to develop your technology and balance sheet around them.
The Developer’s Dilemma, March 2004
The inability to create a great cell-phone software course may tell us a lot about the plight of independent developers in a development-hostile environment.
Rock the (Wireless) Vote.com, March 2004
Does politics by thumb – via the culture of MTV – enhance democracy, or reduce it to a marketing survey?
Photographs and Memories, April 2004
The cameraphone represents the latest step in a long evolution away from elevating and preserving moments, to capturing and disposing of them.
Nortel Scandal Brings Back the Fear, April 2004
Just last week, it looked like a Fed rate hike or the cooling of China’s markets were Wall Street’s biggest worries. Now, corporate malfeasance has roared back into the headlines.
Sex, Lies and Videophones, May 2004
New services allow users to fake the background sounds and appearance of their locations — all because interactive media really wants us to be more honest.
The Ayes Have it: US Law Catches Up with Camera Phones, May 2004
In reaction to a recent spate of camera phone voyeurism in places like locker rooms and bleacher seats, a new bill has been put before the US Congress that would make it illegal to videotape, photograph, film, broadcast or record a person who is naked or in underwear in any location a “reasonable person would believe that he or she could disrobe in privacy.
Your Mother: Ma Bell, Brand Whore?, May 2004
AT&T’s MVNO deal with Sprint points to a new telecom infrastructure strategy.
These Streets Were Made for Talking, June 2004
Using utterly backwards-compatible technologies, a new mobile service lets city streets tell their histories to anyone with a cell phone.
Bush Backs Bells, June 2004
The Bush administration has signalled it won’t oppose efforts by the Baby Bells to overturn laws forcing them to lease out their landlines at discounted rates — thanks to competition from mobile networks and other technologies.
Learning From TV’s Mistakes, June 2004
Today’s advertising crisis needn’t threaten mobile content at all. In fact, the mobile industry can exploit the coming shift in media buying patterns to establish itself firmly in the emerging landscape.
The Powers That Be, June 2004
he cell phone may be bringing us into a new renaissance, but it may end up differently than what we’re expecting. Instead of becoming more empowered as individuals, we may give up on the notion of individuality altogether.
New York Gives Operators Key to City, July 2004
The wireless industry’s biggest problem could become the world’s biggest solution.
Autonomous Zone: The Work-as-Art of Yury Gitman, August 2004
The city’s lampposts will provide more than just light, thanks to a new deal with a number of wireless companies.
Cell Phones Are Good, August 2004
Sci-fi writer and media academic Paul Levinson attempts to show in his new book that cell phones are as natural as fingers.
Are Cell Phone Users the New Smokers?, August 2004
If the newest etiquette surveys are any indication, mobile phones may be going the way of the cigarette.
Networks Without the Net, September 2004
Software for the next generation of wireless networks may forgo access to the Internet, and give users access to one another.
Open Source Currency, October 2004
Or, how mobile phones can break the money monopoly.
Media Tie-Ins:What the Mobile Industry Can Learn from Ovaltine, October 2004
The stories, games, and characters driving youth culture can also drive the uptake of communications technologies.
Cell Phone Cinema, November 2004
Lights, camera, compression! The new world of bite-sized video.
Phones as Hackable Platforms, November 2004
Marko Ahtisaari wants the wireless industry to embrace its users as developers.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: How Market Segmentation Could Erode A Mobile Culture, December 2004
“I know I’m wasting half my advertising dollars — I just don’t know which half.”
A Spectrum Carol, December 2004
Yes, it’s holiday time, so here’s a true legend from the early days of wireless data.
Universal Access: Not Just for the Disabled, December 2004
Paying attention to one group’s disabilities enhances usability for everyone else.
Music In, Music Out: The Garage Band Ethos in a Cellular World, January 2005
The future of mobile music lies in creating tunes, not just downloading them.
The Next Billion: Multilingual Users and Mobile Telephony, February 2005
Why the mobile industry needs to learn the world’s struggling languages.
Tinseltown 2.0, February 2005
The future of mobile music lies in creating tunes, not just downloading them.
That’s Inter-tainment, March 2005
How mobile can — and should — change the way we think about entertaining ourselves and each other.
Honey, I Geotagged the Kids, March 2005
How collaborative cartography could enable us to map our shared worlds — and why the wireless industry probably won’t go for it.
Another Kind of Cell Damage, April 2005
Mobile phones marketed to children may cause less injury to tykes than they do to the image of the entire wireless industry.
Networked Plush, April 2005
Inserting a cell phone or an Airport in a fuzzy doll just won’t cut it. It’s time for toys to network.
It’s Got a Hold on You, May 2005
The mobile phones in our hands may have a more totemic role in our lives than we suspect.
Mark Pesce: Evolution by SMS, May 2005
“LiveRecord is a bare-faced attempt to create another, more powerful form of mobile crack.”
Phone App Writers: The Next Generation, June 2005
Last year, it was Dodgeball. What do this year’s students have in store for the mobile phone?
SMS Activism: Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You, June 2005
Mobile-enabled politics are still far from true networked solidarity — and may do unaffiliated activists more harm than good.